DEA Archived Press Releases

Press Releases before January 20, 2025
612 Results - Showing 261 to 270
PRESS RELEASE

Drug dealer pleads guilty in fentanyl overdose death

SAN DIEGO – Uriah Odish pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that he supplied fentanyl that led to the fatal overdose of 25-year-old Tiffany Hansen, of La Mesa, on Jan. 23, 2018. According to his plea agreement, Odish sold more than 500 grams of what he knew to be...
PRESS RELEASE

Dealer admits selling deadly fentanyl laced pills

SAN DIEGO – Christopher James Stracuzzi entered a guilty plea in federal court today, admitting that he distributed fentanyl that resulted in the death of a San Diego man. Stracuzzi is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 2, 2019, at 9 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Whelan. According...
PRESS RELEASE

DEA proposes to reduce the amount of five opioids manufactured in 2020, marijuana quota for research increases by almost a third

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing to reduce the amount of five Schedule II opioid controlled substances that can be manufactured in the United States next year compared with 2019, per the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking being published in the Federal Register tomorrow and available for public...
PRESS RELEASE

DEA announces steps necessary to improve access to marijuana research

WASHINGTON – The Drug Enforcement Administration today announced that it is moving forward to facilitate and expand scientific and medical research for marijuana in the United States. The DEA is providing notice of pending applications from entities applying to be registered to manufacture marijuana for researchers. DEA anticipates that registering...
PRESS RELEASE

Three men sentenced for attempting to smuggle $28 million of cocaine on the high seas

SAN DIEGO – Three South American cocaine traffickers were sentenced in federal court this week after being convicted of transporting approximately 1,230 kilograms (2,706 pounds) of cocaine—worth more than $28 million USD—on the high seas. The sentencing hearings followed a week-long trial in April in which a federal jury convicted...
PRESS RELEASE

Teen who recruited juveniles to smuggle drugs sentenced to 46 months in custody

SAN DIEGO -- Phillip Junior Webb, 20, was sentenced by District Court Judge Michael M. Anello in federal court today to 46 months in custody for conspiring to distribute controlled substances and smuggle undocumented individuals, including a Mexican national and Chinese national, for financial gain. According to the public record...
PRESS RELEASE

Jury convicts three men of trafficking nearly $17 million of cocaine

SAN DIEGO – Yesterday afternoon a federal jury convicted three defendants on charges stemming from their efforts to traffic approximately 734 kilograms (1,614 pounds) of cocaine -- worth nearly $17 million -- on the high seas. The verdict was rendered after a 10-day trial in the United States District Court...
PRESS RELEASE

Lebanese businessman tied by Treasury Department to Hezbollah is sentenced to prison for money laundering scheme involving the evasion of U.S. sanctions

WASHINGTON – The operator of a network of businesses in Lebanon and Africa, whom the United States Department of the Treasury designated as a financier of Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah, was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to forfeit $50 million by U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton...
PRESS RELEASE

Former Honduran drug trafficker sentenced to life in prison for distributing over 150 tons of controlled substances

NEW YORK – DEA Special Operations Division Acting Special Agent in Charge Michael Machak and United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey S. Berman announced today that Hector Emilio Fernandez Rosa, aka “Don H,” was sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to distribute and possess...
PRESS RELEASE

Chula Vista man sentenced to 10 years for being source of fentanyl that resulted in non-fatal overdoses in Alpine

SAN DIEGO – A Chula Vista man was sentenced today in federal court to 10 years in prison for distributing fentanyl that led to the non-fatal overdoses of five people in Alpine, some of whom were revived by first responders with naloxone. In sentencing Joel Rodriguez of Chula Vista, U.S...